SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack edged up 14 cents and held firm at a two-week high of $53.83 a tonne on Friday, as Western cargoes arriving in Asia were seen at low levels.
About 1 million tonnes of naphtha were placed on provisional bookings for July arrival in Asia, similar to volumes fixed for June.
These were down from a monthly average of 1.62 million tonnes for January to May arrivals, Reuters data showed. Refiners focusing on middle distillates at the expense of the lighter fuel could also gradually tighten supplies, although no immediate impact was seen, traders said.
GASOLINE UP
Asia's gasoline crack was at a one-week high of $6.61 a barrel but supplies remained ample, traders said.
Although gasoline stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub in the week ended June 16 were only marginal higher by about 1.8 percent versus a week ago, they were nearly 24 percent higher than a year ago, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
This was in line with higher stocks in Singapore, where light distillates inventories were at a two-week high of about 13.8 million barrels in the week to June 16.
The strikes in France, which initially lifted sentiment, had limited impact due to abundant supplies in most regions.
The protest over labour laws has caused delays in the loading and unloading of about 70 oil, LNG and chemical tankers at the Fos-Lavera oil terminal in the southern port of Marseille.
TENDER NEWS: Chinese Sinochem Hong Run has cancelled a tender to sell 35,000 tonnes of gasoline for July 26-28 lifting from Laizhou but this could not be confirmed. The tender was originally scheduled to close on June 20.
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